A brief moment of faux humility as Dodgers basks in the adoration
of the audience.

More faux humility. Hold the applause, folks...

The gag: Dodgers has put the rocket into reverse, jamming
it into the ground instead of launching it.

Sheepish Dodgers: "Oops! Had the silly thing in reverse."

Maybe nobody will notice the mistake if he closes his eyes and
looks vaguely penitent.

Part Two, Masters of Comedy

Marvin the Martian has just claimed Planet X in the name of
Mars.

Daffy responds: “Look, bud… I’ve got news for
you… I have already claimed this bit of dirt for the Earth and there just
ain’t room enough on this planet for the two of us.”

Daffy plants the earth flag first...

Is it even possible to read these lines without falling into
Daffy Duck speech? It’s so wonderfully smug, so condescending, so
entirely lacking in any self-knowledge. The “bit of dirt” flourish is
especially funny. Daffy’s perfectly ready to escalate the situation even
though he concedes the planet itself has little value. In Daffy’s mind, the
real subject is always Daffy. And I love how the threat at the end smartly
foreshadows the memorable conclusion.

... then Marvin claims Planet X
in the name of Mars....

This is brilliantly written comedy, instinctively built on
character. After refining the insane 1930s Daffy into tamer Daffy over a couple of dozen shorts, writers Chuck Jones and Michael
Maltese intimately knew (and loved) their self-confident, eternally deluded character.

Jones was the sophisticated Abbott to Maltese’s
Costello; the Dean Martin to Maltese’s Jerry Lewis. Jones brought
book-smarts to the table and Maltese brought life-smarts. After working with
several other writers, Jones latched onto Maltese because he sensed that
Maltese added a hard-edged imaginative freedom to his work that was
needed. Without Maltese, Jones could easily slip towards a more
Disney-esque realism and sentimentality. Maltese dared him to be a little
crazier.

"Look, bud... I've got news for you... I have already
claimed this bit of dirt for the Earth and there just ain't
room enough on this planet for the two of us."

If this had been a normal Hollywood
screenwriting situation, Maltese might never have made the cut.
Eventually, most writers have to face the typewriter and bang out some
material. But that’s not the way Warner Bros. animation worked.

With support from Jones, Maltese threw together a fast
comic-book version of the proposed story, with the scenes presented in a few
dozen little rectangles. These sketches
were mounted on the wall and a “jam session” was called. Maltese excelled at these “jam sessions”
(sometimes called “yes sessions” because criticism of ideas wasn’t allowed) where
writers and directors gathered together to brainstorm gags. To be
noticed, you had to be fast, loud, and prepared to prove your gag was funny by
acting it out. Maltese loved this. He could express crazy slapstick
ideas with enthusiasm.

Afterwards the plot would continue to gel through the
recording sessions and Jones’ endless drawings of character sketches, matching the
sketches to dialogue exposure sheets that would guide the animators. Jones’ spirit infused the work but he was
supported every step of the way by extraordinary artists in their own right.

When writing his memoir Chuck Amuck in the late 1980s, Jones remembered the golden days of the Jones-Maltese writing partnership with great affection: “...(as) the squirrel cannot explain or even be aware of his symbiotic relationship with the redwood, Mike and I never knew which of us was the squirrel and which the redwood.”

About 21 Essays

21 Essays is my cultural history blog. In 2007, I challenged myself to write 21 essays in 21 days on a single focused topic—the classic German silent film The Golem (1920).I liked that format and so I’m reviving it here as a way of exploring favorite things (movies, books, paintings, etc.) in depth.

About the Author

Lee Price is the Director of Development at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts (Philadelphia, PA). In addition, he writes a tourism/history blog called "Tour America's Treasures" and recently concluded two limited-duration blogs, "June and Art" and "Preserving a Family Collection."

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"There's something I'm finding out as I'm aging--that I am in love with the world."